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Download Article 205KB MUSIC FOR THE MASSES EMERGING TECHNOLOGY recordings in Studio Two, as has been prevalent at Abbey the 1930s. He later developed recorders to automatically have more recent musicians Road since it first opened in the world’s first stereophonic double-track performances. such as Oasis and Adele. 1931. Housed within a former recording system at the studios. Tapes were sped up, looped, The dimensions, wooden nine-bedroom Georgian However, the arrival of The sliced and slowed down. flooring and layers of wall townhouse in north-west Beatles turned the studios into a Amplifiers were even placed panelling all contribute to London, it was the world’s first household name when the band inside cupboards to produce the distinctive acoustics that custom-built recording studio. recorded Abbey Road there distinctive sounds. emphasise the mid-range The studios were the first to and the album cover featured Today, many rare pieces frequencies, making the studios use ‘moving coil’ microphones a photo of the band walking of equipment from this era sit perfect for recording pop songs. and recorders, which work by across the pedestrian crossing in the corridors between the Many young and aspiring bands producing a small induced outside. The 1960s and 1970s studios. The building has run dream of being able to capture voltage in a coil of wire when saw a flurry of experimentation out of storage space and the some of this sonic aura on their sound waves hit a diaphragm, as engineers hand-built tape equipment is often still used by own tunes by recording here. after they were introduced machines, customised audio artists wanting to get a special Today, however, the spread by engineer Alan Blumlein in compressors and rewired vintage sound on their music. of cheap, high-quality software and digital recording equipment For more than 70 years, a diverse range of musicians from Glen Miller and Cliff Richard to Radiohead, Coldplay and Lady Gaga have recorded albums at Abbey is removing the need for artists Road Studios. The expertise and cutting-edge equipment that was behind some of these albums is now being used by the next generation of pop stars © Abbey Road Studios to book expensive studio time to produce their tracks. Technology is triggering a seismic shift With its herringbone-patterned in the music industry as new wooden floor and lilac-coloured artists can record their music wall panels, it is easy to forget at home, without the need to that at Abbey Road Studios you rely on labels and large studios. are standing in one of the most MUSIC FOR Given this apparent threat to its famous recording studios in the business, Abbey Road is taking a world. Studio One, at the heart somewhat curious approach, by of the studios in London, looks helping these DIY musicians. Its more like school gym hall than engineers have spent the past a place where music history was five years developing software THE MASSES created. and online services that allow The magic of the place is anyone with a home computer revealed when you close your Abbey Road Studios is one of the world’s most famous recording to recreate the distinctive Abbey eyes: the room has a wide, Road sound in their bedroom. studios, linked with some of history’s greatest musicians and classic epic, acoustic feel that befits albums. Technology journalist Richard Gray talked to Mirek Stiles, the orchestras that have played there. There is a slightly smaller WORLD FIRSTS Head of Audio Products at Abbey Road Studios, and Jon Eades, space next door that boasts While this may seem an unusual Head of Abbey Road Red, to learn how the studios’ acoustic a warmer and more intimate step for an organisation whose sound, which has attracted some business has been built around a engineering expertise and classic equipment is being adapted to of the biggest musical artists special blend of the right venue, in the world. Acts including equipment and expertise, it is help today’s DIY musicians. Composer Sir Edward Elgar conducted an orchestra at the opening ceremony of the studios in 1931 on a stage built at The Beatles and Pink Floyd also characteristic of the rule- one end of Studio One, demonstrating the sound and atmosphere of a live concert that the acoustic engineers hoped made many of their landmark breaking experimentation that to capture © Abbey Road Studios 18 INGENIA INGENIA ISSUE 72 SEPTEMBER 2017 19 MUSIC FOR THE MASSES EMERGING TECHNOLOGY UNMIXING SOUND Digital technology is not just giving old instruments and equipment a new lease of life, it is also resurrecting entire pieces of music. James Clarke, a technician at Abbey Road, tackled the seemingly impossible: unmixing a piece of music after it had been recorded. Throughout the history of recorded music, it has never The warmth and character that been possible to successfully unravel the different components is achieved by using signals of a track if they were recorded together. To overcome this through analogue circuits is still problem, sound engineers record the vocals and all the different instruments in a piece of music on separate channels, mixing highly prized over the harsh The team at Abbey Road Studios has produced samples of three of the ones and zeros of digital. It is classical pianos that are kept in Studio One and Two at Abbey Road, including them together in the control room. the uprights used by the Beatles and a Yamaha CFX1 Concert Grand Piano – For albums such as The Beatles’ Live at the Hollywood Bowl, perhaps fitting that this ageing an instrument that costs more than £120,000 new © Abbey Road Studios analogue equipment is now the problem is immediately apparent. On the original recording, playing a fundamental role in drawings. Testing how they DIGITAL the sound of the band is almost completely drowned out by helping Abbey Road break new compare to the real thing could INSTRUMENTS the screaming of 10,000 fans. However, Clarke felt that it was a ground in the digital world. be a good deal trickier. problem that modern digital technology could help with. He Fortunately, one piece While the recreations of spent five years programming and tweaking software that could of good luck may make the recording equipment at Abbey unravel all of the separate instruments and vocals from a track. The VIRTUAL EQUIPMENT job of resurrecting a piece of Road can give some flavour process involves modelling the music as spectrograms (a visual Working with Israel-based Engineer Gus Cook works with BTR-3 tape machines, one of which was rediscovered at the University of Southampton of the distinct sound that can in 2016, in room 11 at Abbey Road Studios around 1965 © Abbey Road Studios equipment that has almost representation of the spectrum of frequencies) to help identify the software company Waves Audio, legendary status among be heard on albums recorded component elements. Abbey Road Studios has been the studio and the virtual circuits Hearts Club Band album. There There are virtual models of audiophiles a great deal easier. there, it is hard to beat actually When he applied it to The Beatles’ album, he was able to recreating the sound of original so that they can be compared. are recreations of Abbey Road’s vinyl cutting, mastering and In early 2017, a student radio playing in the studios. There isolate each of the four’s instruments and vocals from the messy Abbey Road equipment as Engineers then spend days fine original reverb plates that were playback gear, passive equalizers station at the University of is an emotional element to cacophony, allowing an entirely new remastered version to be plugins that can be used on tuning the digital version to installed into the studios’ echo and artificial double-tracking Southampton rang up to say interacting with 50-year-old created. The new cleaned-up album was released in 2016 to audio-editing software. In much ensure that it adds the same chambers in 1957 and became equipment, an effect that was that they had found an old equipment with a weight of coincide with Ron Howard’s documentary about The Beatles’ live the same way as it is possible character and depth to audio popular on the pop albums of invented for The Beatles. Each tape machine that may have musical history behind it that is tour Eight Days a Week. to use plugins on photo-editing signals as the original analogue the 1960s and 1970s. A selection plugin has a graphical interface belonged to Abbey Road. When hard to replicate with software. programmes to stylise an image, circuits and valves would have of mixing desks developed that replicates the look of the they read out the number The unique sound of the studios in as many ways as they could gives users the opportunity to audio can be similarly tweaked done. At times, staff can find by Abbey Road’s record original machine, helping to printed in tiny type on the themselves, and the way sound possibly imagine: hitting different reblend the balance from each and enhanced. themselves listening to a snippet engineering development give a taste of the experience front, staff at Abbey Road were reverberates between the walls, parts of the snare, tapping rims, microphone in the software Using the original schematics of drum just half a second long department are also available, of using it on their computer. amazed. It was a BTR-3, a vintage is also a key part of what artists using different sticks or brushes, as if they were sat behind and technical drawings stored over and over again to see if including the one used to create It is allowing users to access tape machine custom-built by hope to capture on a record at muffling the drum or holding the control desk.
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